Bryan ISD Trustees Tap Proven Talent for Key Posts

Advanced academics, strategic planning and organizational efficiency are top priorities for new leaders

The Bryan ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved the hires of three veteran leaders tonight for roles tackling key areas of focus for the District in the years ahead. A new chief of staff position and two reclassified jobs begin a restructuring process under the leadership of Superintendent Christie Whitbeck.

Ginger Carrabine, formerly the executive director of strategic planning for Fort Bend ISD, was selected to lead Bryan ISD in strategic planning, District goals, organizational planning and structure, future rezoning projects and streamlining workflow. As Chief of Staff, Carrabine will report directly to the superintendent and serve in a key advisory and support role. The new position will focus on high-quality academics, strategic planning and organizational efficiency.

The position was created to address needs arising from the District’s continued growth of programs and to plan for future growth as families continue to move to the community. Carrabine has proven adept at these tasks, overseeing strategic planning for the 75,000-student Fort Bend ISD and in prior positions as executive director of curriculum and instruction, middle and elementary school principal and team leader/teacher.

“The ability to recruit and retain top-tier talent is a hallmark of a strong and desirable workplace,” Superintendent Christie Whitbeck said. “Ginger Carrabine is an exceptional planner, thinker and strategic organizer, and we are blessed to have her come aboard. She will assist us in ways that will ultimately produce a lean, efficient leadership structure with an even sharper focus on high-quality learning.”

Also in board action, an existing District position was restructured in order to manage the expansion of advanced and gifted learning programs across the District. Trustees approved Bryan Collegiate High School Principal Christina Richardson to serve as director of advanced academics. Richardson, who helped launch the collegiate charter school 10 years ago in partnership with Blinn College and Texas A&M University, has consistently led the school to top placements in national rankings by Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.

Formerly a coordinator’s position, the job was elevated to a director’s post in order to oversee the District’s growing number of high-caliber programs. Richardson will guide the new Explore Gifted & Talented Academy at the all-new Ross Elementary when it opens this Fall. In addition, she will lead the popular and successful INQUIRE Academy, Odyssey Academy, International Baccalaureate program and advanced placement programs. Richardson will also assume an executive leadership role over Bryan Collegiate High School, where a new principal will be named after a search this summer.

“Christina Richardson is an exceptionally poised, competent and committed leader,” Whitbeck said. “For the past decade, her students have achieved outstanding academic success, and many of those young people are the first generation in their family to have attended college or graduate from high school. Her grasp of curriculum combined with her fundamental gift for coaching faculty toward top results will create the best possible outcomes and opportunities for all students.”

A second restructured position transitions the district’s evaluation and research analyst to a director’s post. The director of accountability, research, evaluation and assessment will oversee state testing and assessment, data analysis and external research requests from universities and other organizations, among other duties. The board selected Dr. Jill Morris, formerly an evaluation and research analyst, to serve in the newly created director’s position.

“Dr. Morris brings an in-depth understanding of data, statistics, testing and assessment to her new role,” Whitbeck said. “In addition, she will develop and conduct studies aimed at continuous improvement. We’re excited to expand the reach of her high quality work in Bryan ISD.”

About the Hires:Ginger Carrabine, Chief of StaffA dedicated educator with a career spanning 26 years, Carrabine previously served as executive director of strategic planning in Fort Bend ISD. She led District’s recent rezoning project and oversaw Fort Bend ISD’s process to become a District of Innovation. Before serving as executive director of strategic planning, Carrabine was Fort Bend’s executive director of curriculum and instruction for four years. She oversaw elementary curriculum, secondary curriculum, career and technical education, fine arts, advanced academics and digital learning and assessment.

Carrabine’s service in campus leadership included serving as a middle school principal, elementary principal, elementary assistant principal and team leader/teacher. She is married to Mike Carrabine, who was recently named the new basketball coach at Rudder High School. They have three adult children, graduates of Texas Tech, the University of Texas and the University of Alabama, respectively. Carrabine earned a bachelor of science degree from Lamar University and a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Houston.

Christina Richardson, Director of Advanced AcademicsFor the past decade, Christina Richardson served as principal of Bryan Collegiate High School (BCHS), one of only 59 designated TEA early college high schools in Texas. The school consistently ranks among the best early college public high schools in the country by national news and college rating organizations. Richardson helped launch Collegiate in 2006 by writing, submitting and earning an Early College High School Start-up Grant. The grant netted Bryan ISD $300,000 for three years and kicked off the region’s only high school to offer up to 60 hours of college credit to high school graduates.

She began her teaching career at Madisonville CISD in 2000 and transferred to Bryan High School in 2002, where she led numerous AVID activities for all campuses. She was named founding principal of BCHS in 2006 and added to her duties by becoming director of alternative and accelerated education in 2009.

Richardson earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Colorado State University and two master’s degrees from Texas A&M (education administration and curriculum and instruction, respectively).

Dr. Jill Morris, Director of Data, Statistics, Testing and AssessmentDr. Jill Morris began her teaching career in 1998, specializing in mathematics. She joined Bryan ISD in 2005 and was elevated to master teacher at Bryan High School in 2011. Two years later she was promoted to coordinator of secondary mathematics. In 2014, Morris became the District’s evaluation and research analyst, adding her high-caliber statistical analysis to Bryan ISD’s evaluation of data and research results.